Goodness me, it is amazing how much you can achieve when you are in possession of a good List.
I have spent today at a frantic trot, desperately trying to make some headway down the endless catalogue of Things To Do.
I am sorry to say that at this end of the day, the list is no shorter than it was, because I have kept adding more things to it as I have thought of them.
All the same, it has been a jolly full day.
It did not get off to the best of starts. Perhaps rather optimistically, I set an alarm for nine o’clock this morning, planning to bound out of bed with a single lively spring and make a start. Unfortunately, when the alarm actually went off, actually I turned it off and rolled over, and did not awaken again until almost ten.
I suppose I must have needed the sleep. I did not have very much at weekend. All the same, I was disappointed with myself, and resolved to do better thereafter.
When I did finally get out of bed, it was still not with a single enthusiastic bound. It was a bit of a gritty-eyed stagger.
Still, to my enormous happiness, the sun was shining. That was a pleasure not merely because of the ending of the foggy damp gloom that has enveloped us for the last few weeks, but also because it promised a happy outcome to Clean Sheets Day.
There were Lucy’s sheets as well as mine, and some creative use of washing-line space had to be employed.
The walk did not exactly pass in a hurry either. I was determined not to waste any more time than absolutely necessary, and strode along briskly, stopping only when poor round Rosie got stuck on the stile. You have to climb over some stone slabs and through a gap in the wall, which turned out to be no longer wide enough for her increased maternal girth, and she got stuck. She was so upset that I could not even laugh, scrabbling hopelessly with her little paws and trying to squeeze through.
I did not leave her to struggle, obviously. I had to go and tug her out backwards and then lift her over the top. This was no mean feat because she is quite solidly heavy now.
After that everything was downhill, in both senses of the word. You can’t stride assertively home in half an hour when all of your dog-walking friends are passing on a sunny morning. You have to stop and chat and appreciate the marvellous novelty of the balmy clear skies.
When I got back it was late, and I had to rush. It was time to dive into the To Do List.
The builders had left me a pile of wood, and I sawed it all up, although this might have been better done on a day when the yard was not full of sheets, which now have a distinctly sawdusty flavour. I stacked it in the log shed, refilled the fireplace and swept the yard, which had become carpeted with sawdusty fallen leaves, covering all of Mark’s clutter with a rust-coloured blanket.
It is now tidy and fresh.
After that I swept the sawdust out of the kitchen and turned my attention to the conservatory. It had become very difficult to get in and out of the kitchen, because of the enormous geranium that had grown to cover all of the end wall of the house, cutting out the light from the windows and wrestling with anybody who tried to get through the door.
I felt very sorry to do it, because it is a truly magnificent specimen, but I hacked off some of its more obstructive branches and tied the rest out of the way. It had become so large that it was smothering the bamboo that shared its bed, like a resentful spouse with plenty of life insurance at stake.
I felt it glaring at me even as I mutilated it.
I beat back the now truly monstrous Swiss cheese plant, and fenced it in with some chunks of wood from the newly-restored woodpile, then I watered it all, and mopped.
After that was the catering. I made another sugarless cake, because I have almost finished the last one, that is the problem with nice cake that isn’t bad for you, it lasts no time at all. I made a pile of cottage cheese pancakes for my taxi dinners. I washed it all up, and then dashed upstairs for the Monday project of dusting and hoovering.
It was getting very late by then, because although it does not sound like very much now that I have set it all down here, it took absolutely ages, and I did not even have time for porridge for breakfast, although that was my own fault for not getting up earlier.
To say that the dusting was cursory would be doing an injustice to cursors, but I dashed round wiping hastily, and in the end it was done, and everywhere hoovered. The washing was in, and hoisted over the fire because of being not quite dry
I hurled pancakes and apples into my bag ready to go to work.
I was hardly late at all.
